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7 June 2020

Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.

10.0 |
The FT

10.0 |
The Observer

This is an album of killer couplets, even the bleakest delivered with a half-smile
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9.591281

9.5 |
Paste Magazine

May contain the best music he has created since Various Positions came out in 1984
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9.191141

9.1 |
Consequence Of Sound

The legendary singer's latest prepares us for his departure, but comes nowhere near exhausting his vitality
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9.091142

9.0 |
The Music

He recently told The New Yorker that he's "ready to die" and that's the overwhelming mood on You Want It Darker
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9.091240

9.0 |
PopMatters

What You Want It Darker accomplishes isn’t just powerful instrumentation in minimalism, or strong poeticism, but that of an artist baring their soul, and the sharing of sincere truth
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9.091145

9.0 |
Uncut

He leavens what could've been a bleak sayonara to this mortal coil with bone dry quips
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9.091473

9.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit

Cohen has remained a beacon of inspirational light in a world gradually consumed by vile intolerance and abhorrent characters, but through his music we can all join him in keeping the darkness at bay for as long as we possibly can
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9.091704

9.0 |
music OMH

They confront the inevitable end that informs our deepest fears, yet they also very much serve as a healing balm
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8.591711

8.5 |
The Quietus

As with 2014’s Popular Problems, it’s obvious his powers hadn’t been dimmed by time; that this album sounds like such a final farewell that it’s difficult to see where he’d have gone next; that, he’d probably have still pulled it off, because he usually did
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8.591238

8.5 |
Pitchfork

Feels like a pristine, piously crafted last testament, the informed conclusion of a lifetime of inquiry
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8.391158

8.3 |
A.V. Club

He’s choosing to examine his life (and life’s work) rather than ponder the abyss. That ensures You Want It Darker doesn’t feel like an ending, as much as it feels like one more chapter in Cohen’s songbook
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8.091163

8.0 |
All Music

Despite his long list of gripes, sins, and losses, Cohen's instinctive opening to whatever light remains prevails on You Want It Darker. When all contradictions are nakedly exposed in truth, all one can do is embrace them and wish for the best. Brilliant
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8.0 |
Exclaim

8.0 |
Q

Deeply ambiguous yet wittily epigrammatic, You Want It Darker is all one might want from a final testament, short of cosy reassurance. Print edition only

8.091147

8.0 |
The Independent

Mostly produced by the singer’s son Adam, You Want It Darker finds Cohen as frustrated and regretful as any 82-year-old has a right to be, railing variously against the world, his own weakness and god
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8.091967

8.0 |
Drowned In Sound

A succinct journey into the psyche of a man who knows his career is at an end, but that isn’t going to stop him going out on a high
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8.091282

8.0 |
NOW

You Want It Darker is frightening, aching and, finally, sad. But, on this gorgeous, essential record, the sadness is illuminated. It glows
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8.091244

8.0 |
Rolling Stone

You Want It Darker is the sound of a master soundtracking his exit, with advice for those left behind
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8.091263

8.0 |
Spectrum Culture

If You Want It Dark stands as his final statement then it’s the best one we could hope for
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7.091242

7.0 |
Slant Magazine

The culmination of 50 years of moody, often melancholic music
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